


the finer art of sleepovers

by magisterequitum



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-21
Updated: 2012-04-21
Packaged: 2017-11-04 01:38:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/388226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magisterequitum/pseuds/magisterequitum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a quarter to eight and Caroline's laying out snacks and drinks because if she was going to have a sleepover with Barbie Klaus, she was going to have the best damn sleepover ever. (in which Caroline shoots her mouth off and ends up in the impossible situation of teaching Rebekah about sleepovers.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	the finer art of sleepovers

"I don't understand. She's fallen through into another realm, this realm, but she comes up through the street?"

Caroline dips another chip in the green bowl of salsa before answering Rebekah's question. She rolls her eyes and bites down hard on the chip. God, she's so freaking hungry again. "It's a movie."

"Yes," Rebekah frowns. Her glower's somewhat diminished by the pigtail braids that Caroline had plaited thirty minutes ago. "I know it's a movie."

"That's the point. It's silly. It's not supposed to be completely realistic. I mean," Caroline waves her hand as she snags another chip. "There's no such thing as talking chipmunks." She pauses with the chip near her mouth, wondering if maybe there was; with vampires and werewolves and witches, who's to say that talking animals weren't a real thing.

"Oh." Rebekah shuffles her feet on Caroline's bed. "Alright then."

There's a perfectly good reason for why she's having her third sleepover with Rebekah Mikaelsen, Barbie Klaus, Original Vampire and so on and so on. Totally. Completely.

It starts with Caroline and ends with her big damn mouth.

 

-

 

It happens like this:

Caroline's not having a very good day. First, she totally forgot they had an assignment due in Calculus today, and then there's Tyler who's still off wherever after bailing out on town and dealing with his freaky sire bond without telling her anything, as well as the fact that the Originals are still running around Mystic Falls causing all sorts of problems. It's not a good day. And speaking of Originals, there's Barbie Klaus down the hallway smiling at Matt.

Caroline slams her locker shut when she sees the other vampire flip her hair over her shoulder. She knows that move. She's practically got that move trademarked, hands down a signature in her arsenal of weapons for flirting. There's a dent she leaves behind in her locker door as she stalks away.

In history, she leans forward in her seat, because she'd purposely slid behind her so she could talk when Alaric's back was turned, and hisses, "Do not even think about making Matt your next meal."

Rebekah cuts her eyes at her from over her shoulder. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't even try to lie. I saw you in the hallway. I know what you're up to." Caroline goes quiet as Alaric turns around, droning on about England during WWI. She waits till he turns back to the board. "Don't think I don't see you trying to Cady Heron your way into my life here. But I'm telling you now I'll smack you down harder than Regina George ever could."

Rebekah's face scrunches in confusion and annoyance. "What are you even going on about? Who is this Cady and Regina?"

"Seriously?" Caroline squints at the other girl. "Mean Girls? How do you not know about that movie? That's like mandatory, required at every sleepover."

Face going blank, Rebekah deadpans, "I wouldn't know because I've been daggered for the past near hundred years."

Oh. Right. Oops. Caroline shuts up then. Also, what was up with them using the word ‘dagger’ like a verb so often; but then she guesses with a crazy brother like Klaus, they probably had good reason to adopt it into their personal vocabulary. She'll let it slide.

She thinks it's over then except Rebekah corners her at practice after school.

Caroline steels her body, tenses her muscles, ready to make a break for it or land a punch when the Original crowds into her space, thinking that she's here to exact revenge for talking to her that way in class earlier. Instead, she gets an iPhone thrust into her face. Her eyes go cross as she tries to read the screen, but Rebekah's already pulling it away, looking down at it herself.

"I looked up this sleepover thing, and I want to have one."

Caroline's distracted at first by how proud Rebekah looks as she taps at the screen, no doubt for discovering how to use the smart phone's technology, but then her words sink in and connect. "Wait, what?"

Rebekah gives her a look as if to suggest she's an idiot. And then she says so. "Honestly, how bright are you? I said I wanted to partake in this sleepover."

"Yeah, I got that part. I don't get the part where you think we're going to do this. As in the two of us. Together." Caroline waggles a finger between the two of them to emphasize her point.

"Why not?"

There's something like disappointment that shines in Rebekah's eyes, hurt as the other girl bites her bottom lip, vulnerability in the downward slant of her lips. It's the most open Caroline's ever seen her. She groans internally, knowing she will probably regret this. "Alright. Fine."

She tells herself it's charity, pity, and the need to educate because only weirdos and freaks and loners didn't have sleepovers or know about things like Mean Girls; and even then.

 

-

 

It's a quarter to eight and Caroline's laying out snacks and drinks because if she was going to have a sleepover with Barbie Klaus, she was going to have the best damn sleepover ever. She's a pro at throwing these. She'd been the one to plan them between her and Bonnie and Elena since they were six. She's amassed a good hoard of everything from chips to cheese doodles to M&Ms and Twizzlers, ice cream downstairs in the freezer, and warmed up mugs of blood on her nightstand. Mean Girls is already in her DVD player, waiting; the copy's her own.

She looks over the spread critically and hopes this isn't some secret plot to kill her, payback for their side's actions or something. Images of Rebekah ripping her heart out during the Christmas dance scene play out in her head.

The doorbell rings, and she hears her mom already moving to answer it.

Caroline zips out of her room, down the stairs, and blurs to stand behind her mom's shoulder, the door already open. Rebekah's on the front porch, one hand at her side, the other holding a blue duffle bag.

"It's okay, Mom." Caroline says. She'd told her Mom about her guest for the night, lied to her face and said everything would be okay, though she had no guarantees for that. Her mother steps aside, turning back to her study, but not without a backwards meaningful look; she'd refused to leave the house for the night, insisting that if this was going to happen that she'd be here or it wouldn't happen at all. The Mikaelsen mansion had been discarded as the venue because there was no way that Caroline was going to voluntarily walk into there with five Originals waiting to tear her apart.

She turns back to Rebekah on her porch. The curious expression on her face has her saying, for explanation, "She's just protective. Sometimes too much. But you know, mothers."

Rebekah's eyes follow where her mother had disappeared. "Not really. My brothers are protective of me, Nik especially."

There's nothing much to say to that, or that Caroline wants to say, and an awkward silence stretches between them.

Then, "Oh." Caroline laughs, hand sliding from the door. "I forgot. Would you like to come in?"

Rebekah's mouth twists as she steps inside. "Thank you." It's partially sarcastic and partially manners, her gratitude.

"My room's upstairs," Caroline says, closing the front door and turning for the steps. She leads the way and leans against her bed once they're inside, watching Rebekah take in her room, gaze flitting from one corner to the next and along the walls, thinking that her room's probably the size of the other girl's bathroom judging by the size of the Mikaelsen mansion. She's ready for something caustic, something bitchy, and is surprised instead.

"It's nice. Your room. It's," Rebekah hesitates, eyes zeroing in on the pictures on the wall and on the mirror of her vanity. "Comfortable. Lived in."

It sounds almost sad and pity flares up in her again. She knows what had happened to Rebekah in the 20's, the others had told her, and can guess how empty the other vampire might feel to awaken decades later. to the present.

"Thank you." Caroline bites her lip, and then focuses on the duffle bag still on her shoulder. "Oh, um, do you want to change?"

Rebekah's wearing jeans and a tanktop, simple from her more dressier clothes Caroline's seen her in, but still not comfortable bedroom type clothing. She shrugs and pulls the tanktop over her head, bending down to reach for the zipper of her bag.

Oh. Well, that's not quite what Caroline had meant. Her bathroom's right there, she'd thought the Original would go change inside, but nope, she's pulling a pair of pajamas over bare legs and her chest.

When she's clothed again, Caroline tilts her head and squints, though she doesn't need to. "Are those dogs?"

Rebekah's face morphs into offense, and she sniffs, running her hands over her sides. "I like dogs."

They're little Scotty dogs with blue bow-ties and a ribbon around each ankle and wrist. "Did you go out and buy those?"

"The Internet told me that sleepwear was very important to this event."

Caroline smiles at that. She's wearing sweatpants and an old middle school cheer shirt, but thinks maybe next time she'll pull out the old pair she has that are decorated with horses. Next time? When did she start thinking that they'd do this more than once? God. She grabs one of the mugs of blood off her nightstand and offers it to the other girl, sitting down on her bed and sipping from her own. Nudging the duffle with her toe, she asks, "What else did the Internet tell you to bring?"

Pulling out a pillow, she gives it a shake. "I'm supposed to bring my own, for manners. Kol told me we're supposed to hit one another with them while naked." She makes a face, smirking at Caroline's own scowl. "I broke his hand for that."

Caroline reaches out and takes it with her free hand, carefully putting it amongst all the others she has, minding the food that's balanced on her comforter. "I have extras, but that's okay."

Rebekah keeps pulling from the bag, a toothbrush and hairbrush, hair ties and nail polish and nail polish remover too. She's got everything standard for spending the night. There's still an air of hesitation about her, as if she doesn't want to admit to her naivety, and well, Caroline's willing to not exploit that. And she'd rather not end up thrown through her window or bleeding out on her carpet. She'd never hear the end of it from Damon and his stupid mouth then.

"Oooh," Caroline coos, ducking down to swipe up a bottle of nail polish. "Is this yellow?" She reaches forward and pulls Rebekah to the bed, and grabs the remote after. "You can paint my toes while we watch the movie. And then ice cream."

Painting toes is safe. There's not much the Original can do to her then, except maybe break all her toes and ankles, but Rebekah looks pretty happy and pleased as she crosses her legs and situates herself on the bed. She puts her blood aside and reaches for the bowl of Twizzlers, curiously picking one up and popping it in her mouth. After a minute, she declares emphatically that she likes them.

It's relatively simple after that.

They sit side by side on her bed, munching on the snacks and sipping the blood from their coffee mugs, while Cady Heron navigates the brutal world of American high school and they paint one another's toes. Caroline takes the sunny yellow and Rebekah insists on a dark pink.

 

-

 

Rebekah frowns at her from where she's pressing buttons on the microwave, per Caroline's instructions, to heat up the chocolate syrup for their sundaes. "I don't understand. Why doesn't Regina just kill Cady?"

Caroline raises and eyebrow as she scoops out the strawberry ice cream into two bowls. "Seriously? You can't just kill someone when they get in your way."

Shrugging as the microwave dings, Rebekah opens the door and pulls the bottle out. "It would be easier for her."

They put their toppings on, sprinkles for Caroline and cherries for Rebekah, heading back up the stairs. "No," Caroline says, turning on the landing towards her bedroom. "That would be murder."

"You're a vampire."

"Who drinks from bloodbags. I've only ever killed one person. And it was enough then."

Rebekah's looking at her with a tiny crease between her eyebrows.

Caroline swallows and plucks another DVD to watch. "Murder's off the conversation list. Let's watch Clueless."

She dozes off somewhere around Cher being demoted from queen, noticing that Rebekah's eyelids are drooping too.

 

-

 

Caroline wakes with a sudden jolt, opening her eyes and taking stock. She can't believe that she actually fell asleep. That hadn't been the plan, in fact, she'd meant to stay awake the whole night because of sleepover rules that everyone knew and because she'd not been sure she'd wake up if she fell asleep; you can't blame a girl for paranoia when it's not exactly unfounded.

"You fell asleep." Rebekah's staring at her, and her voice is full of accusation.

Bitchy-Caroline rears her head. "You did too!"

The other girl actually pouts. "We never got to watch Dawson's Creek like you said."

Caroline lifts a hand from underneath her comforter and waves it towards where Rebekah's curled up on the other side of her bed. "We'll learn all about The Creek next time."

"Next time?"

She shrugs. "Why not, I had fun." And it's the truth. She actually did. It'd been nice to have someone to just be chill with that didn't have their own drama completely rendering them incapable of paying attention to her. It's been nice, this.

She gets a smile, and in that moment she thinks that Rebekah looks nothing like a fearsome one thousand year old being capable of killing almost anyone who threatened her. She just looks like a girl. A girl a bit happier than the lonely one that had cornered her at practice the other day. Good deed for the century done, Caroline, she thinks, congratulating herself.

"What now?" Rebekah asks, sitting up in bed. Half of her hair has been braided back, and Caroline must have fallen asleep before finishing the other side.

"Now, we make pancakes."

She nods. "The Internet did say that breakfast was important as well."

Caroline throws back the cover and sheets. "You know, the Internet doesn't have to tell you everything. I'm the expert. And," she shrugs again. "We can do what you like. What I like. It's ours."

 

-

 

Which is how next week Caroline finds herself explaining the finer details of the love triangle known as the Dawson-Pacey-Joey situation.


End file.
